Archive for category Epilepsy

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Status epilepticus is when a seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes or when seizures occur close together and the person doesn’t recover between seizures.

There are different types of status epilepticus: convulsive and non-convulsive.

Convulsive status epilepticus requires emergency treatment by trained medical personnel in a hospital setting. It can be life-threatening.

What is status epilepticus?

Status epilepticus is said to occur when a seizure lasts too long or when seizures occur close together and the person doesn’t recover between seizures. Just like there are different types of seizures, there are also different types of status epilepticus.

Over the last several decades, the length of seizure that is considered as status epilepticus has shortened. Years ago, a seizure needed to last longer than 20 minutes to be considered status epilepticus. In the last few years, it is now defined as any seizure greater than 5 minutes. This makes sense because most seizures do not last longer than 2 minutes. The longer a seizure lasts, the less likely it will stops on its own without medication. Very long seizures (i.e., status epilepticus) are dangerous and even increase the chance of death. It is important that these long seizures are identified early, so they can be treated early.

Epilepsy.com Seizure Emergency Editor Matthew Hoerth MD speaks with Dr. Christopher Kramer, a neurointensive care specialist from the Mayo Clinic, about the importance of recognizing and treating status epilepticus. A paper published in the Neurocritical Care Journal from 2012 nicely outlined guidelines for treating this neurologic emergency. This paper detailed the subtypes of status epilepticus, emphasized the high mortality rates of this condition, and summarized the best medical evidence for treatment.

Convulsive Status Epilepticus

This term is used to describe the more common form of emergency situation that can occur with prolonged or repeated tonic-clonic (also called convulsive or grand mal) seizures. Most tonic-clonic seizures end normally in 1 to 2 minutes, but they may have post-ictal (or after-effects) symptoms for much longer. This makes it hard to tell when a seizure begins and ends.

Status epilepticus occurs when….

The active part of a tonic-clonic seizure lasts 5 minutes or longer.

A person goes into a second seizure without recovering consciousness from the first one.

A person has repeated seizures for 30 minutes or longer.

This type of status epilepticus requires emergency treatment by trained medical personnel in a hospital setting.This situation can be life-threatening and getting treatment started fast is vital. The outlook for this type of status may vary depending on the cause of the emergency and if other medical problems or complications occur.

Tests may also be needed to find the cause of the seizure emergency so it can be treated correctly. People with a known cause, such as a brain infection, brain tumor, or stroke, may have a worse outlook than those with no other medical problems or known cause.

Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus

The person may be confused or not fully aware of what is going on, but they are not “unconscious,” like in a tonic-clonic seizure.

These situations can be harder to recognize than convulsive seizures. Symptoms are more subtle and it’s hard to tell seizure symptoms from the recovery period.

There is no consistent time-frame on when these seizures are called an emergency. It depends in part on how long a person’s typical seizures are and how often they occur.

When nonconvulsive status epilepticus occurs or is suspected, emergency medical treatment in a hospital setting is needed. EEG testing may be needed to confirm the diagnosis first. People with this type of status are also at risk for convulsive status epilepticus, thus quick treatment is required.

Summary: The neurological benefits experienced by those with epilepsy who follow ketogenic diets may be a result of the low carb diet lowering brain inflammation, researchers report.

Source: UCSF.

Ketogenic diets — extreme low-carbohydrate, high-fat regimens that have long been known to benefit epilepsy and other neurological illnesses — may work by lowering inflammation in the brain, according to new research by UC San Francisco scientists. The UCSF team has discovered a molecular key to the diet’s apparent effects, opening the door for new therapies that could reduce harmful brain inflammation following stroke and brain trauma by mimicking the beneficial effects of an extreme low-carb diet

“It’s a key issue in the field — how to suppress inflammation in brain after injury,” said Raymond Swanson, MD, a professor of neurology at UC San Francisco, chief of the neurology service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and senior author of the new study.

In the paper, published online September 22, 2017 in the journal Nature Communications, Swanson and his colleagues found the previously undiscovered mechanism by which a low carbohydrate diet reduces inflammation in the brain. Importantly, the team identified a pivotal protein that links the diet to inflammatory genes, which, if blocked, could mirror the anti-inflammatory effects of ketogenic diets.

“The ketogenic diet is very difficult to follow in everyday life, and particularly when the patient is very sick,” Swanson said. “The idea that we can achieve some of the benefits of a ketogenic diet by this approach is the really exciting thing here.”

Low-Carb Benefits

The high-fat, low-carbohydrate regimen of ketogenic diets changes the way the body uses energy. In response to the shortage of carb-derived sugars such as glucose, the body begins breaking down fat into ketones and ketoacids, which it can use as alternative fuels.

In rodents, ketogenic diets — and caloric restriction, in general — are known to reduce inflammation, improve outcomes after brain injury, and even extend lifespan. These benefits are less well-established in humans, however, in part because of the difficulty in maintaining a ketogenic state.

In addition, despite evidence that ketogenic diets can modulate the inflammatory response in rodents, it has been difficult to tease out the precise molecular nuts and bolts by which these diets influence the immune system.
Intricate Molecular Waltz

In the new study, the researchers used a small molecule called 2-deoxyglucose, or 2DG, to block glucose metabolism and produce a ketogenic state in rats and controlled laboratory cell lines. The team found that 2DG could bring inflammation levels down to almost control levels.

“I was most surprised by the magnitude of this effect, because I thought ketogenic diets might help just a little bit,” Swanson said. “But when we got these big effects with 2DG, I thought wow, there’s really something here.”

The team further found that reduced glucose metabolism lowered a key barometer of energy metabolism — the NADH/NAD+ ratio — which in turn activated a protein called CtBP that acts to suppress activity of inflammatory genes.

In a clever experiment, the researchers designed a drug-like peptide molecule that blocks the ability of CtBP to enter its inactive state —essentially forcing the protein to constantly block inflammatory gene activity and mimicking the effect of a ketogenic state.

Peptides, which are small proteins, don’t work well themselves as drugs because they are unstable, expensive, and people make antibodies against them. But other molecules that act the same way as the peptide could provide ketogenic benefits without requiring extreme dietary changes, Swanson said.

The study has applications beyond brain-related inflammation. The presence of excess glucose in people with diabetes, for example, is associated with a pro-inflammatory state that often leads to atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty plaques that can block key arteries. The new study could provide a way of interfering with the relationship between the extra glucose in patients with diabetes and this inflammatory response.

Eisai recently announced the company will launch its novel antiepileptic drug (AED) Fycompa, which is intended as an adjunctive therapy for people suffering from epilepsy and experiencing partial-onset or primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures despite receiving other AEDs. Eisai’s formulation was approved for marketing and manufacturing in March, and the product was recently included in Japan’s National Health Insurance drug price list.

Fycompa (perampanel hydrate) was discovered by the company in-house labs, and is suggested as a once-daily oral tablet. Fycompa is a selective and noncompetitive AMPA receptor antagonist which can reduce neuronal hyperexcitation linked to seizures. The drug influences the postsynaptic glutamate activity at AMPA receptors.

Fycompa was tested in two Phase 3 clinical studies; in a Study 335 of adjunctive therapy in refractory partial-onset seizures, and in a Study 332 of adjunctive therapy in primary generalized tonic-clonic (PGTC) seizures. The studies showed a significant drop in the frequency of seizure occurrence.

In Study 332, 30.9 percent of people who received Fycompa therapy did not experience PGTC seizures over the 13-week study period. The most frequent adverse events included headache, dizziness, somnolence, irritability, and fatigue.

About 1 million Japanese people are affected by epilepsy. The disorder is classified by seizure type: partial-onset seizures account for about 60 percent, and generalized seizures account for about 40 percent of cases. PGTC seizures are the most frequent and serious forms of generalized seizures, occurring in 60 percent of generalized seizures and about 20 percent of all epilepsy cases.

The generalized tonic-clonic seizure is an important risk linked to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. As about 30 percent of people suffering from epilepsy are not able to manage seizures with current therapeutic approaches, there is a relevant unmet medical need.

Fycompa is approved in 45 countries and territories, including the U.S. and Europe, as an adjunctive therapy of partial-onset seizures in patients suffering from epilepsy who are 12 or older. Fycompa is also approved in 35 countries and territories, including the Europe and the U.S., for the adjunctive treatment of PGTC seizures in people suffering from epilepsy, who are 12 and older.

Eisai focuses on neurology as a therapeutic area, and by providing Fycompa as a new therapy in Japan, the company intends to further address the wider needs of people suffering from epilepsy.

A five-year EU-funded project, EPITARGET (Targets and biomarkers for antiepileptogenesis), is studying the processes leading to epilepsy in adults. The consortium, consisting of 18 partners from 9 countries, aims to identify novel biomarkers and their combinations in clinically relevant animal models. These biomarkers, defining the different stages of epilepsy, will be used to predict/diagnose early and late stages of the evolution of the disease.

After the first year the project advanced significantly towards its objectives. Sample collection from various animal models of epileptogenesis is ongoing. The project developed a biocompatible electrode for fast and sensitive glucose measurement in the brain.

EPITARGET characterised expression patterns of a number of molecules at various time points after epileptogenic insults. They include lipid mediators and their receptors, microRNAs, immunoproteasomes, free radicals and antioxidants, amyloidogenic factors, inflammatory molecules, extracellular matrix proteins and synaptic proteins.

The consortium members are investigating complex mechanisms of epileptogenesis with the goal to design disease-modifying combinatorial treatment strategies, targeted to the different stages. EPITARGET optimised the two-stage approach for drug screening and explored pharmacokinetics and tolerability of combinations of clinically available drugs in naive and epileptic rodents. For targeting compounds to the brain, EPITARGET developed a lipid encapsulation approach. The first formulation of amiloride is undergoing in vitro and in vivo testing. The first generation of long-term transgene expression viral vectors was already verified in vivo.

EPITARGET findings using animal models will be translated into clinical use by validating biomarkers in human blood and brain tissue samples. Ongoing sample collection includes human brain tissue and biofluids from status epilepticus, traumatic brain injury and pharmacoresistant epilepsy patients. The creation of animal and human databases is under way. The first year of the project resulted in 20 peer-reviewed publications.

Upon completion, EPITARGET is expected to improve diagnosis of epilepsy, and to develop new antiepileptogenic treatments and means to predict their efficacy. It will improve the quality of life for millions of people and reduce treatment costs.

Epilepsy apps help you to log your symptoms and potential triggers for seizures, as well as their duration and severity.

Living with epilepsy is more than just knowing your seizure types, the right medication, and dosage. Apps designed for tackling epilepsy can help you to take a practical approach to your seizures and manage how the condition affects your social, emotional, and physical well-being.

Epilepsy is a neurological condition affecting an estimted 3.4 million individuals in the United States. The main symptom of epilepsy is repeated seizures, which affect everyone differently depending on the part of the brain that is involved.

While some people have seizures that cause the body to jerk and shake, others experience unusual sensations or loss of consciousness. Most seizures occur randomly, but stress, sleep deprivation, alcohol, certain medications, specific foods, and flashing bright lights can also trigger them.

You may find that your seizures have a pattern or are more likely to occur in certain situations. It can be useful to record your symptoms and seizures in an epilepsy tracking app or journal, and share the information with a healthcare profession or epilepsy specialist.

Here are Medical News Today‘s choices of the 10 best epilepsy apps.

HealthUnlocked

HealthUnlocked is a health-based social network. With more than 600 communities, HealthUnlocked matches you with other people that are interested in similar health-related topics or are in the same health situation.

On sign-up, you can add your health conditions, including epilepsy, and choose other subjects that interest you. These can be altered at any time. By searching communities using keywords such as “epilepsy” and “seizures,” groups are suggested that are relevant for you to join.

Becoming a member of a community allows you to post questions, learn from the experience of others, and receive emotional support. The app also recommends communities, content, people to connect with, and services.

Seizure Tracker

Seizure Tracker is quick and easy to set up on your smartphone and can be used immediately after download. The app is designed to help you to manage epilepsy by logging seizures and keeping records of their length, type, potential triggers, and a description of associated symptoms.

Created by the parents of a child with epilepsy, Seizure Tracker’s goal is to empower those with epilepsy while redefining how information about the condition and seizures is collected and shared.

The app’s Quick Capture button allows you to time and record seizures as they happen and upload them to YouTube for private sharing. When the video and timer are stopped, the app enters an event log that is stored in your Seizure Library. The app can also be used without the video function.

Seizure First Aide

Seizure First Aide is an app developed by the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota that could save a life. One in 10 individuals in the U.S will have a seizure in their lifetime, according to the Foundation, and Seizure First Aide provides basic real-time first aid for anyone who observes a seizure happening – whatever the seizure type.

The First Aid icon on the dashboard gives you the four vital steps you need to follow if you encounter a seizure. You can also record the duration of the seizure with the Timer icon.

Videos are included in the app that show the five most common types of seizure to help you to identify what seizure type you have witnessed, and a Get Help emergency icon is included that recommends you call 911 if a seizure lasts more than 5 minutes.

Snug Safety

Snug Safety is a daily check-in service that provides peace of mind for individuals that live alone. Snug Safety checks in with you every day, and if they do not receive a response from you, they will notify your emergency contacts and send for help.

If you live on your own and are worried about experiencing severe seizures, Snug Safety could be a useful solution. The makers say to think of the app as a modern medical alert that is designed to be positive, proactive, and friendly.

The free plan includes alerting emergency contacts if someone does not check in at their regular time, and an upgrade is available to a dispatch plan, wherein a personal dispatcher will call or coordinate a wellness check to the individual’s last known location.

ICE Medical Standard

Seizures can happen anywhere and at any time. ICE Medical Standard allows you to share key emergency information with a first responder on your phone’s lock screen. You can add the phone numbers of your emergency contacts, information about any medication that you take, any medical conditions that you have, and other essential information that could save vital time in an emergency situation.

The app guides you through entering the emergency information and then saves this as a lock screen image, meaning that a first responder only needs to power up your phone to see all the information they require. You can also set a color code based on your condition, with red indicating that you have a health condition such as epilepsy.

The app’s developers, About the Kids Foundation, advise that a smartphone is used as a backup in this type of situation, as it could lose power or otherwise be overlooked. They say that you should use an ICE Medical Standard ID Card, as well. However, this app could make all the difference in a medical emergency.

Epilepsy Journal

Epilepsy Journal is an app designed primarily for logging your seizures as they happen. The first thing you will notice when you install the app is the large purple button marked “Seizure,” which makes logging the start and end of a seizure simple.

You can also log rescue medication, possible triggers, the activity you were doing at the time of the seizure, and your location. From these entries, you can generate reports, view trends, and even email your doctor.

The app’s creator, Olly Tree Applications, say that the inspiration for the app was driven by the person’s experiences with their daughter, who has severe epilepsy. They developed the app to allow people with the condition to communicate their symptoms and possible triggers quickly.

myChildren’s

myChildren’s is an app from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital that allows parents to track and manage their child’s healthcare needs. Although the app allows for tracking a wide range of healthcare needs, such as regular medication, it has a specialized built-in epilepsy toolkit.

After entering your child’s details, you can elect to add the Epilepsy Toolkit, which takes you to a specialized add-on. The add-on allows you to record the details of seizures including their type, description, possible triggers, and date and time. It also contains a section where you can enter information about the emergency treatment that your child needs and a useful list of resources about the condition.

While the app is not specifically for managing epilepsy, it is a valuable tool for storing and accessing information about your child’s medical needs in one place.

Neurology Now

Neurology Now is a journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Published on a bi-monthly basis, Neurology Now features the latest groundbreaking research and news in neurology diagnosis, treatment, and management.

In-depth perspectives and tips on living with neurological disorders, including epilepsy, are included in the publication, along with inspiring stories written by patients and caregivers.

Articles include answers from experts to common questions about a condition, a closer look at particular treatments, advice on managing the cost of care, tips on managing your neurological condition, and the most recent research and promising treatments.

Epilepsy Health Storylines

Epilepsy Health Storylines is an app designed to be “more than just a seizure tracker.” The app provides a variety of tools aimed at helping you to manage your condition. Its comprehensive feature set includes recording symptoms, seizures, moods, and setting reminders for taking medication.

The symptom tracker is well designed with a lookup search to allow you to enter the symptoms that you often experience. These are then saved to your home screen, allowing fast entry of the severity of the symptom, the effect that it had on your day, and how your mood was at the time.

The Daily Vitals screen displays trends over time that you can show your doctor. Other tools include the medication tracker, which allows you to enter your specific medications from pre-populated lists with the times of day that you need to take them.

SeizAlarm

SeizAlarm is an app for people with epilepsy and other seizure-related disorders to alert their emergency contacts manually if they think that they will need help soon, or automatically if a seizure-like motion is detected by an iPhone or Apple Watch.

The app monitors for abnormal repetitive motion or elevated heart rate and notifies your emergency contacts accordingly. If you plan on taking part in an activity that may trigger false seizure detection, you can disable this feature.

SeizAlarm has a help request feature that can be activated if you require immediate help, and logs are kept of your requests to retain for your records. When a help request is sent, your location is captured and sent on to your emergency contacts so that they can easily find you.

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The dangerous drug attorneys at the Law Offices of Gregory Krasovsky can provide legal advice and representation to individuals and families considering pursuing a Keppra lawsuit. In order for a plaintiff to secure a maximum settlement in litigation of a Keppra claim, regardless of whether in an individual lawsuit or in a class action lawsuit, it is crucial that the law firm representing you have a competent and experienced team of Keppra lawyers to guide you through all of the legal hurdles as well as direct you to sufficient funding (litigation funding or legal finance) to cover pharmaceutical litigation costs. Contact a Keppra attorney today to schedule a free consultation and take your first step to obtaining compensation for losses caused by Keppra side effects.

Keppra, which is generically known as Levetiracetam, is an anticonvulsant drug used to treat epilepsy. Keppra was originally manufactured and marketed by UCB Pharmaceuticals Inc., but now it is available as a generic and is manufactured by a number of firms. Unfortunately, Keppra has a number of serious side effects that can, at times, outweigh its benefits for people who are suffering from epilepsy. Some of the most serious Keppra adverse effects include suicidal tendencies and birth defects.

There are many Levetiracetam side effects. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

Suicidal Ideation

Suicidal Tendencies

Suicide

Headache

Unsteady Walk

Depression

Hallucinations

Fever

Sore Throat

Mood Changes

Changes in Skin Color

Anxiety

Birth Defects

A 2005 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study of suicidal ideation in relation to epilepsy drugs has indicated that people taking those drugs, such as Keppra, are twice as likely to suffer from suicidal thoughts as are those who have not been taking these drugs.

Unlike many other drugs, such as Wellbutrin, people taking Keppra are likely to experience suicidal ideation regardless of what age group they might happen to fall into. The aforementioned study tracked almost 30,000 people, and the rick of suicide was spread fairly evenly across the population. Of the 28,000 people who had taken Keppra in this study, four of them had actually committed suicide. These unfortunate incidents serve to confirm the danger of this unsafe drug.

Although Keppra’s ability to cause birth defects is still under investigation, there is some amount of evidence that seems to confirm that Keppra is more harmful to unborn babies than was previously thought. Currently, the FDA has placed Keppra in the Category C for pregnancy, which indicates that there is little human risk. However, AdverseEvents, Inc. believes that Keppra should perhapd be in Category D, which indicates that a significant enough risk to pregnancy exists.

Keppra is similar to another prototypical nootropic drug called piracetam. Keppra is also thought to be a possible treatment for Tourette syndrome, autism, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorder.

The attorneys at this Keppra law firm believe that drugs should not cause the same ailments that they are meant to cure. If you or your loved one has been injured as a result of taking Keppra, you might be entitled to compensation. Contact our attorneys today to schedule a free consultation.

Summary: By capturing a cell by cell view of seizures propagating through a mouse brain, researchers discovered neurons fire in a sequential pattern, regardless of how quickly the seizure occurs. The findings confirm seizures are not a result of neurons going haywire.

Source: Columbia University.

Of the 50 million people who suffer from epilepsy worldwide, a third fail to respond to medication. As the search for better drugs continues, researchers are still trying to make sense of how seizures start and spread.

In a new study in Cell Reports, researchers at Columbia University come a step closer by showing that the neurons of mice undergoing seizures fire off in a sequential pattern no matter how quickly the seizure propagates — a finding that confirms seizures are not the result of neurons randomly going haywire.

“This is good news,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Rafael Yuste, a neuroscientist at Columbia. “It means that local neuronal circuits matter, and that targeting the right cells may stop or even prevent some types of brain seizure.”

To induce the seizures, researchers injected a tiny area of cortex in awake mice with two types of drugs–one that increases neuronal firing and another that blocks the inhibitory interneurons that control information flow between cells. Recording the seizures as they rippled outward, researchers found that cells in the mouse’s brain systematically fired one after the other. Under both models, the seizure spread across the top layer of cortex in a wave-like pattern before descending into its lower layers.

Unexpectedly, they found that whether the seizure lasted 10 seconds or 30 seconds, it followed the same route, like a commuter stuck in traffic. The concept of neurons firing in a reliable pattern no matter how fast the seizure is traveling is illustrated on the cover of Cell Reports, drawn by the study’s lead author, Dr. Michael Wenzel.

“The basic pattern of a string stretched between two hands stays the same whether the hands move closer together or farther away,” he says. “Just as neurons maintain their relative firing patterns regardless of how slowly or quickly the seizure unfolds.”

Researchers were able to get a cell-by-cell view of a seizure propagating through a mouse’s brain using high-speed calcium imaging that allowed them to zoom in 100 times closer than electrode techniques used on the human brain.

Researchers were able to get a cell-by-cell view of a seizure propagating through a mouse’s brain using high-speed calcium imaging that allowed them to zoom in 100 times closer than electrode techniques used on the human brain. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

It may be the first time that researchers have watched a seizure unfold at this level of detail, and their findings suggest that inhibitory neurons may be a promising area of future research, said Dr. Catherine Schevon, a neurology professor at Columbia University Medical Center who was not involved in the research.

“The role of inhibitory restraint in seizure development is an area that few have studied at micrometer scale,” she said. “This could be a useful treatment target for future drug development or stem cell interneuron implants.”

Results from the Euro-Esli study presented 5th September 2017 at the 32ndInternational Epilepsy Congress (IEC) in Barcelona, Spain.1

Bial and Eisai have announced data confirming the effectiveness and tolerability of Zebinix® (eslicarbazepine acetate) in routine clinical practice, thereby complementing evidence from clinical trials.[i] The Euro-Esli study is an exploratory pooled analysis of data from 14 European clinical practice studies, analysing data of 2,058 patients aged between 14-88 years old with partial-onset seizures (POS), with or without secondary generalisation.1 Full results were presented at the IEC in Barcelona, Spain.1

“It is most reassuring to see similar efficacy results with eslicarbazepine acetate in a routine clinical setting compared to that of clinical trials; we can be confident that this treatment is effective amongst the diversity of our ‘real’ epilepsy patients,” explains Dr Vicente Villanueva, Neurologist and Epileptologist, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain. “Real-world studies like the Euro-Esli study are important because they provide significant insight into how a drug performs in a routine medical setting, allowing us to assess the drug, to ultimately improve patient outcomes.”

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions in the world, affecting approximately six million people in Europe.2 An epileptic seizure is a clinical manifestation of the condition, thought to result from an abnormal discharge of a set of neurons in the brain.[ii] Seizures can vary in manifestation, from brief lapses of attention to severe and prolonged convulsions.[iii] Depending on the type, seizures may involve one part of the body or the whole body, and may affect consciousness.3 Seizures can also vary in frequency from less than one per year, to several per day.3 Epilepsy has many possible causes but often the cause is unknown.3

The Euro-Esli study (in over 2,000 patients with epilepsy) showed that at 3, 6 and 12 months, seizure freedom rates in patients aged 14-88 years treated with eslicarbazepine acetate were 30.6%, 38.3% and 41.3% respectively. Retention rates were 95.4%, 86.6% and 73.4% and responder rates were 60.9%, 70.5% and 75.6%, respectively.1 There were significant reductions from baseline to final visit in monthly frequencies of total (mean reduction 44.1%), simple partial (78.8%), complex partial (53.1%) and secondarily generalised (80.0%) seizures (p<0.001 for all).1 Adverse events were reported for 34.0% of patients and led to discontinuation of 13.6% of patients.1 The most frequently reported adverse events were dizziness (6.7%), fatigue (5.4%) and somnolence (5.1%).1

These results improve our knowledge and understanding around the use of eslicarbazepine acetate in routine clinical practice and strengthen Bial’s commitment to developing and delivering beneficial treatment options for people living with epilepsy António Portela, CEO of Bial

These data underscore our commitment to our anti-epileptic drug product portfolio. We will continue to invest both in clinical trials and the generation of real-world evidence to improve the lives of patients living with epilepsyNeil West, Vice President EMEA, Global Neurology Business Unit at Eisai

Eslicarbazepine acetate is indicated as monotherapy in the treatment of POS, with or without secondary generalisation, in adults with newly diagnosed epilepsy; and as adjunctive therapy in adults, adolescents, and children aged above six years, with POS with or without secondary generalisation.[iv]

Types of Seizures

1. Focal (or partial) seizures

Focal (or partial) seizures occur when seizure activity is limited to a part of one brain hemisphere. There is a site, or a focus, in the brain where the seizure begins. There are two types of focal seizures: